<\/p>\n
July 2, 1974: The\u00a0Aquabelles water skiing team performs in a lagoon at Marine World\/Africa U.S.A.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Sandy Solmon\/The Chronicle<\/p>\n
Feb. 27, 1997:\u00a0RaeLena,\u00a0Elijah\u00a0and Stephanie Montoya peer into a tank\u00a0at Walrus World, one of the last major animal attractions that carried over when Marine World changed to Six Flags Discovery Kingdom.<\/p>\n
Lea Suzuki<\/p>\n
Sept. 24, 1986: The former Circle Star Theatre in San Carlos, visible from Highway 101.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Bryan Moss\/The Chronicle<\/p>\n
The front page of the San Francisco Chronicle, one day after a Marine World tiger attacked a San Mateo High School football player at a pep rally.<\/p>\n
Chronicle archive<\/p>\n
The end of Marine World\/Africa U.S.A. in Redwood Shores, like the beginning and everything in between, sounded completely made up.<\/p>\n
The park announced its pending move to the North Bay, and the office buildings to rise in its place, at a press conference that was still a very Marine World scene.<\/p>\n
\u201cVallejo and Marine World officials made the announcement in the park\u2019s Killer Whale Theater,\u201d the Chronicle reported on Sept. 19, 1984, \u201cbefore an audience of dozens of Marine World employees, many of whom were holding parrots and monkeys.\u201d<\/p>\n
Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n
Forty years ago, Marine World completed its move to Vallejo. It was, in retrospect, the moment that Silicon Valley conquered the soul of the Peninsula. Where kids once embarked on camel rides and watched chimpanzees ride scooters, Oracle founder Larry Ellison\u2019s trio of circular high-rises sprouted. From elephants to enterprise software \u2014 is there a better metaphor for the last half-century of radical change in San Mateo County?<\/p>\n
But mostly we should mark this anniversary so we don\u2019t forget perhaps the most bonkers destination in Bay Area history. It happened, and for its time, it was amazing.<\/p>\n
San Francisco Chronicle Logo<\/p>\n
Make us a Preferred Source to get more of our news when you search.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n Add Preferred Source<\/p>\n <\/a><\/p>\n The park was originally planned in the 1960s for Mill Valley along Richardson Bay, before the city council deemed it \u201cincompatible with the community\u2019s residential character.\u201d Redwood City was less discriminating, and in 1968 grass safari huts began appearing in the marshland east of Highway 101, with \u201cMarine World Parkway\u201d suddenly an exit off the freeway.\u00a0<\/p>\n Aug. 2, 1966: Architects look at plans for Marine World\/Africa U.S.A. in Redwood City.\u00a0<\/p>\n Peter Breinig\/The Chronicle<\/p>\n There were money troubles from the beginning, which is not a good starting point when housing some of the most efficient predators on the planet. But the local ownership group led by former Ice Follies and Sea World executive Michael B. Demetrios ran the park with family-friendly touches and a P.T. Barnum flair. Early 1970s ads for Marine World\/Africa U.S.A. featured Judy the water skiing elephant, who was indeed towed through the lagoon on a pair of pontoon-like skis.<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n Weird things happened at Marine World, and there was always a newspaper photographer around to capture it.<\/p>\n Warriors center Clifford Ray in 1978 saved a bottlenose dolphin named Spock<\/a>, using his extra-long NBA arm to pull a metal bolt out of one of the animal\u2019s stomachs.<\/p>\n 1978: Clifford Ray of the Golden State Warriors pulls out a three-inch bolt that a bottlenose dolphin at Marine World\/Africa U.S.A. had swallowed.\u00a0Ray used his nearly 4-foot arm reach to retrieve the bolt from the dolphin named Mr. Spock.\u00a0<\/p>\n Associated Press<\/p>\n A Marine World tiger in 1985 broke away from its trainers at a San\u00a0Mateo High School pep rally and mauled a football player, requiring 78 stitches. (When they played my alma mater Burlingame High the next day I was among the students chanting \u201cHold that tiger!\u201d at the game.)\u00a0<\/p>\n But most days the park was just low-key surreal. Trainers walking tigers around the park on leashes. Barefoot water skiers. Exotic birds that might land on your shoulder. I still have my third place trophy for finishing in the park\u2019s annual Milk Carton Boat Race, when they\u2019d throw us all in a lagoon with homemade milk carton boats and see who floated.<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n I frequently reminisce with Chronicle education reporter Jill Tucker, who worked at the park in the 1980s, including piloting one of the Jungle Safari tour boats past shorelines filled with monkeys, tigers and giraffes.<\/p>\n \u201cWe had a microphone in one hand, and you would drive the outboard motor (with the other),\u201d Tucker explained to me in a 2017 Marine World-themed Total SF podcast<\/a>. \u201cNo life jackets, no edges to the raft. Like literally anybody could have just tipped over into the murky water. Obviously there were no lawyers in 1980.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n Nov. 14, 1985: Marine World trainer Bill Fleming gets an affectionate lick from Rakhan,\u00a0the tiger that attacked a San\u00a0Mateo High School student.\u00a0<\/p>\n Jerry Telfer\/The Chronicle<\/p>\n My favorite spot was Whale of a Time World, a fantastic playground filled with climbing nets and the fastest slides, and one of the few Marine World destinations that might not be considered problematic in 2026. (It was still a litigation risk; 49ers guard Randy Cross in 1982 fell on the \u201cBirdie Glide\u201d zip line, fracturing his left leg and tearing ligaments in his ankle.)\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n Demetrious and his team counted on even more families moving into the Peninsula\u2019s bedroom communities. But Apple Inc. and Atari arrived instead in the 1970s, stoking tech dreams in a region that already included Hewlett-Packard and jumpstarting a culture of long hours and wealth that fit better with fancy restaurants and Ferrari dealerships than sea lion shows and funnel cakes.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n Marine World\u2019s once-cheap 66 acres were suddenly valuable Silicon Valley real estate.\u00a0<\/p>\n The 1984 deal to sell the theme park land paired Marine World with Toronto-based Campeau Corp. to build a $300 million hotel and office towers on the site, which Oracle moved into later that decade. Developers initially gave weeks for the park to relocate the animals, a plan that would have had them spread in temporary pens before going to Vallejo, which caretakers said would threaten their health. The Chronicle ran letters to the editor in protest.<\/p>\n June 18, 2012: The former Oracle headquarters in Redwood City. Oracle founder Larry Ellison moved into the trio of cylindrical buildings on the footprint of Marine World\/Africa U.S.A. in the late 1980s.<\/p>\n Paul Sakuma\/Associated Press<\/p>\n After that strange 1984 press conference \u2014 \u201cOn two occasions, Yaka, a killer whale, interrupted the speeches by kissing Vallejo Mayor Terry Curtola,\u201d the Chronicle reported \u2014 a compromise was reached to keep the animals in Redwood City until the Vallejo move. In September 1985 the animals were packed on a barge to Vallejo \u2014 The Noah\u2019s ark headlines wrote themselves \u2014 but sadly the Chronicle has no photos of the moment. Marine World in Vallejo opened in 1986 with some of the original vibes (and questionable safety practices), while leaving \u201cAfrica U.S.A.\u201d back in San Mateo County.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n Soon roller coasters and other thrill rides were roaring incongruously past the dolphin and bird shows. Six Flags took over in 1997, and by 2007 the name \u201cMarine World\u201d was gone.\u00a0<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n While I mourned the loss of our quirky, lawsuit-waiting-to-happen wonderland, I didn\u2019t realize it was one of the first dominos to fall in a region that would be reshaped by the tech economy. My generation is the last to remember orchards in Silicon Valley.\u00a0<\/p>\n March 16, 1987: A killer whale jumps over \u201cStar Trek\u201d star William\u00a0Shatner during an event for environmental awareness at Marine World in\u00a0Vallejo.<\/p>\n Jerry Telfer\/The Chronicle<\/p>\n But the technology boom and resulting explosion in property values took more than apricot and plum trees and a strange theme park. Over the years the Peninsula lost both drive-ins, the Malibu Grand Prix mini race track, three roller skating rinks and seemingly every unique movie theater, replaced by tech offices, higher-end furniture stores and retail to serve the region\u2019s growing wealth. The Circle Star Theater<\/a> in San Carlos was demolished in 1993 \u2014 replaced for a time by digital video recording pioneer\u00a0TiVo’s\u00a0headquarters. Only rival amusement park Great America remains \u2026\u00a0for now<\/a>.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n